Faculty

Eliana Abu-Hamdi

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Associate Dean for Research, School of Architecture

Ph.D., UC Berkeley

Hossein Bashiriyeh

Teaching Professor, Political Science Department

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Ph.D., Department of Political Theory and Institutions, University of Liverpool, 1982

Areas of Expertise

Political sociology of the Middle East

Zachary J. Braiterman

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Professor, Religion, College of Arts and Sciences

Ph.D., Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies (1995)

Areas of Expertise

The impact of enlightenment, modernity, modernism, and postmodernism upon Jewish ideas about God, ritual, text-interpretation, and community life—with special emphasis on Jewish philosophy, theoretical aesthetics and classical Jewish sources.

Omar Cheta

Assistant Professor, History Department

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Ph.D., New York University, 2014

Areas of Expertise

Modern Middle East, Late Ottoman Empire, Egypt, capitalism, legal history

Michal Downie

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Part-Time Instructor, Hebrew, College of Arts and Sciences

Ken Frieden

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

B.G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies, College of Arts & Sciences

Ph.D., Yale University

Rania Habib

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Senior Research Associate, Autonomous Systems Policy Institute

Program Coordinator and Associate Professor, Arabic, College of Arts & Sciences

Ph.D., University of Florida, 2008

Timur Hammond

Associate Professor, Geography and the Environment Department

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Research Affiliate, South Asia Center

Research Affiliate, Center for European Studies

Ph.D., Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, 2016

Areas of Expertise

Cultural geography, urban geography, geographies of memory, Turkey, Middle East

Susan Henderson

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Professor, Architecture, School of Architecture

Ph.D., Columbia University

Areas of Expertise

Islamic and modern architectural history.

Catherine Herrold

Associate Professor, Public Administration and International Affairs Department

Associate Professor by Courtesy Appointment, Political Science Department

Senior Research Associate, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Senior Research Associate, Center for European Studies

Ph.D., Duke University, 2013

Areas of Expertise

Global Civil Society
Collaborative and Participatory Governance
Foreign Policy
Foreign Aid

Tazim R. Kassam

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Senior Research Associate, South Asia Center

Associate Professor, Religion, College of Arts & Sciences

Ph.D., McGill University, 1993

Fethi Keles

Part-time Instructor, Anthropology Department

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2014

Areas of Expertise

Refugee resettlement, forced migration, displacement, peace and conflict

Osamah F. Khalil

Professor, History Department

Chair, International Relations Undergraduate Program

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Ph.D., Department of History, University of California, Berkeley, 2011

Areas of Expertise

U.S. foreign relations, modern Middle East, Cold War, Arab-Israeli conflict

Natalie Koch

Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Geography and the Environment Department

Director, Central Asia and the Caucasus Initiative

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, 2012

Areas of Expertise

political geography, nationalism, geopolitics, authoritarianism, sports geography, Gulf and Arabian Peninsula studies

Jaklin Kornfilt

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Director and Professor, Linguistic Studies Program, College of Arts & Sciences

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1985

Sandra D. Lane

Professor by Courtesy Appointment, Anthropology Department

Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Professor of Public Health, Falk College

Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence

Research Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Upstate Medical University

Ph.D., U. California - Berkeley and San Francisco, 1998

Eva Phillips

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Part-Time Instructor, Arabic, College of Arts & Sciences

B.A., University of Haifa at Oraneem

Kara Richardson

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Associate Professor and Department Chair, Philosophy, College of Arts & Sciences

Robert A. Rubinstein

Distinguished Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Anthropology Department

Professor, International Relations

Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Senior Research Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Senior Research Associate, Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry

Senior Research Associate, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

Ph.D., State University of New York at Binghamton, 1977

Areas of Expertise

Peace, conflict and international security, medical anthropology and public health, methods, history and theory

Yüksel Sezgin

Associate Professor, Political Science Department

Director, Middle Eastern Studies Program

Research Affiliate, South Asia Center

Ph.D., University of Washington, 2007

Areas of Expertise

Legal pluralism; informal justice systems; comparative religious law (Islamic, Jewish and Hindu); human and women’s rights in the context of the Middle East, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.